Faculty Group Wants To Dismantle, Rebuild 'Transform CSCU 2020'

Interview with Regents President Gregory Gray starts at 2 p.m., but get there when you can. __budget line: _When Board of Regents Pr

Patrick Raycraft / The Hartford Courant

When Board of Regents President Gregory Gray came up with his ambitious Transform CSCU Plan his goal was to lead the four regional state universities, 12 community colleges and the online Charter Oak State College into the future. The $30 million plan attempts to address declining enrollment, information technology requirements, organizational issues and future labor needs.

When Board of Regents President Gregory Gray came up with his ambitious Transform CSCU Plan his goal was to lead the four regional state universities, 12 community colleges and the online Charter Oak State College into the future. The $30 million plan attempts to address declining enrollment, information technology requirements, organizational issues and future labor needs. (Patrick Raycraft / The Hartford Courant)

Faculty Committee wants to see 'Transform CSCU 2020' dismantled and then revised, rebuilt

After faculty lashed out against a transformative plan for the Connecticut State Colleges & Universities system last fall, Board of Regents President Gregory Gray promised to do a better job of engaging faculty in the development of the plan.

For awhile, it seemed as if that might be happening.

But last week, the Faculty Advisory Committee to the state Board of Regents for Higher Education, which oversees the CSCU system, issued a resolution that makes it clear that faculty want more of a say.

The resolution calls for the system leadership to remove all 36 initiatives that are now part of the "Transform CSCU 2020" plan and to allow the recently-created Transform Steering Committee, which is largely made up of faculty, to "evaluate all removed initiatives and reinstate, modify, or create [new] initiatives."

Robert Brown, chairman of the Faculty Advisory Committee, said the group would like to see the work of revising the plan "in the hands of people who work with students on a regular and daily basis."

Faculty members have contended that the Transform plan, which was developed with the assistance of the Boston Consulting Group, appeared to be more about streamlining and cost efficiencies than about improving the educational experience for students.

Stephen Cohen, a professor at Central Connecticut State University and a member of the new steering committee, said that many of the faculty committee members were surprised to learn at the group's first meeting on March 27 that they were only being asked to help implement and prioritize the initiatives already part of Transform 2020.

He said that faculty members on the committee had been under the impression that they would be able to evaluate the initiatives, eliminating some if necessary, rewriting others, and adding new ones if need be.

He said he'd like to see the steering committee given the kind of authority outlined in the Faculty Advisory Committee's resolution. "We'd like to put a hold on Transform until the steering committee decides what should be in and what should not be ...At this point, we are probaby the best qualified to do that."

Michael Kozlowski, spokesman for the Board of Regents for Higher Education, said in an email, "We received the resolution and we continue to meet with them to discuss their perspectives and suggestions."

Here is the resolution in full:

"WHEREAS the Faculty Advisory Committee resolved not to support Transform CSCU 2020 in its current form, and the majority of CSCU campus governance bodies have voted to support this resolution;

WHEREAS Transform CSCU 2020 has failed in its original goal of increasing state funding to advance the missions of the institutions;

WHEREAS President Gray created the Transform Steering Committee to review Transform CSCU 2020;

BE IT RESOLVED that the Faculty Advisory Committee, in the spirit of shared governance, calls on the System leadership to remove all 36 initiatives from Transform CSCU 2020, and

BE IT RESOLVED that the Faculty Advisory Committee calls on President Gray to charge the Transform Steering Committee to evaluate all removed initiatives and reinstate, modify, or create initiatives that align with the Academic Imperatives, the core values and assumptions, and the distinct missions of the 17 CSCU institutions."